A piratey campaign set in the City of Stormreach in the Eberron Campaign Setting

SC05: Mystery of the Standing Stones

Have you heard of the Circle of Visions? Well if you’ve lived in the City of Storms as long as I have you’re bound to have heard of them. Maybe you even spents days camping out by one of the twelve standing stones outside the city hoping to catch an image of one of the fascinating visions. Well this reporter is proud to announce that he’s finally seen one up-close and personal, and let me tell you, it was a real treat!

As a gnome, I’m a sucker for illusion magic, but this one really takes the cake. Every month a different illusory tale appears, at random it seems, in one of the twelve standing stones that ring the outside of the city; and before you get your hopes up of catching sight of one these delightful illusions, I should warn you that the date seems random too. So even if you were to make camp all month at one of the locations, you’ve only got a 1 in 12 chance of seeing one. That’s a lot of camping. But a little bird once told me, quite literally, that there is a circle of druids who actually do this every month, sending one of their number to each location in order to chronicle the events. Of course those druids can shapeshift into all sorts of animals so you’d never know which is which. The story might not even be true. It came from a bird after all! But I digress.

Back to my point. I actually saw one! That’s right, your very own humble reporter, Merrimack Stargazer, has seen one of these illusions, and I’ve got all the details for you. The legend goes that every month a different image appears. Sometimes the image is lovely, and sometimes a long-dead giant appears, whose name and history are no longer known. Other times these illusions are disturbing, showing images that some of the more superstitious believe to be forewarnings or showing places deep in Xen’drik’s jungles that are believed to have been outposts of the giants or their enemies. Well I caught sight of something even more magnificent. It was a dragon, a proud, majestic, gold dragon! And here’s where the story gets really interesting. The dragon told me, Merrimack Stargazer, that the month of Rhaan would be a very special month. He didn’t say why, and when I asked the figment for more details, he simply smiled. At least, I think it was a smile. This dragon was enormous. At least twenty gnomes in height, so when he lifted his head high and looked down on me it was actually kind of hard to make out details on his expression. But what he said certainly seemed meant for me. Imagine that! A humble gnome like myself being chosen to relay this very important message to everyone in the world!

There’s another legend that says catching sight of a gold dragon is good luck. So thank Olladra for that one! I think I’ll go looking for a gambling house tonight.

SC04 They Came From Below!

They Came From Below!
Many valuables have been stolen, homes broken into, and babies eaten all across the city! (Okay that last part may be an exaggeration, but Stormreachers have become hysterical about it.) It all points to the Cross district where scaly tracks lead into sewer access points and cracks in the city’s foundation. And some of the little buggers have been killed after having been caught in the act. Kobolds! “That’s right, I saw him with my own two eyes, reaching for my shinies as they call em,” goes the story of one local, a merchant named Manfred Goldstone. “So I tossed a flask of alchemist’s fire on his head and finished the job with my dirk.”

“The Coin Lords ought to flush the storm sewers with acid if you ask me,” says Cross resident and overseer of the House Tharashk refinery, Durgran’Torrn. “We Crossers are the ones who’ve been hit hardest by those thieving little sewer rats. Time to rid of them for good!”

“Whoever said they could live in this city anyway?” asks merchant sailor, and ironically to this reporter not an actual resident of Stormreach, Klara Copper. “Disgusting, scaly little vermin kobolds are. Always stealing and sneaking about. No good ever came out of that lot. Only good kobold’s a dead kobold.”

The Stormreach Guard claims to have beefed up their efforts to keep watch over the area. “There’s only so much we can do,” says Freyr Knight, a retired adventurer and new recruit for the Guard. “We have to watch the Harbor and protect important places like the Lorsmarch Palace too. People can always hire mercenaries if they don’t feel safe. Do people just expect the Storm Lords to handle all their little problems?”

And hiring mercenaries is just what many have done. After the deadly encounter with the thief in the night, that is exactly what Manfred Goldstone did. His manor is now protected around the clock by House Deneith Blademarks. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in requests for mercenaries over the last month,” says Bereschel d’Deneith, the enclave’s seneschal.

So when will the menace from below end? “Only when they’re dead,” says Durgran’Torrn, “every last one of em.”

Summary
After hearing of their great deeds, Kookie the kobold approached the party with a proposition. She had baked magical confections which granted her a “special sight,” which did not appear to be magical in any way, but instead induced a sort of hallucinogenic state. Using this “special sight,” Kookie had followed tiny fey creatures each colored red, blue, or green, to a strange grotto which lay near the Koronoo River west of Stormreach. Inside the grotto, Kookie had found an ancient giant ruin known as Azak-Ar where the fey creatures took precious metals, magical items gilded with precious metals, gems, and other treasures to be stacked inside. Kookie was willing to share this “special sight” with the party and lead them to the ruin in exchange for a share of the “shinies.” The only complication Kookie mentioned was that a squatter tribe of kobolds known as the Bright Scale clan had taken hold of the upper part of the grotto. Kookie had snuck past them before, but expected they would not mess with a large group of heavily armed adventurers.

Kookie found a riverboat called the Jaguar’s Growl able to take them up the river to the grotto for a small fee. The Jaguar’s Growl was captained by an old salt of a goblin named Obeliks. He and his mostly goblinoid crew, with the exception of a dragonmarked half-elf who appeared able to pilot the boat, which was magically propelled by a water elemental, took them three days up-river. During the voyage, Kookie had them stop for a brief time to collect her “special ingredient” for her confections. It turned out to be unusual flowers of bright blue, green, and red hue which were attended and gardened by a cantankerous fey whom Kookie merely called The Grump. The party was forced to steal the flowers from The Grump, as he proved less than amenable to any attempt to purchase or trade for them.

SummaryOchre of House Phiarlan said that a smuggler named Osgood working for the Night Tide had recently received an artifact which was being stored in one of Osgood’s warehouses in the Harbor. Ochre explained that House Phiarlan would prefer the artifact be transferred to their custody and hired the adventurers to acquire the item by any means necessary. He preferred there be no witnesses. He gave them a map of the sewers leading from beneath a House Phiarlan owned warehouse to Osgood’s warehouse where he hoped the adventurers might take Osgood’s men by surprise. Unfortunately, it appeared Osgood’s men had discovered the passage beneath the sewers as well, and one of them was lying in wait near the secret passage beneath the Phiarlan warehouse. As the adventurers emerged, he fled to warn his associates. The adventurers pursued him through the sewers as he activated traps to slow them down.

Treasure
The adventurers acquired eight sapphires worth 100 gp each from the eyes of iron defenders in the sewers.